To remain a constantly thriving business for 80 years is a monumental achievement for any company, but for ZOLLER Inc., creating the right tool for the right job has been the lifeblood of the company and the key to its decades of success.
“We manage everything around the machine tool,” said Alexander Zoller, president of ZOLLER Inc. “We put it in that way. We not only have tool presetting inspection machines, we also have tool management software, tool management hardware, tool storage, and tooling equipment storage. With our solutions, we make sure that you have the right tool at the right time with the right measurements at the machine. This is what we do. We help companies in the manufacturing industry be more effective and be more productive.”
Measuring tools
For the gear manufacturing industry, ZOLLER Inc. measures the tools used to create the gears, according to Zoller.
“We measure, for example, the hobbing tools, skiving tools, and shaper cutters; this is our expertise,” he said. “We measure those tools very accurately and very, very quick. We also can produce inspection reports, and that certainly helps customers in the production and manufacturing of the gears.”
As gears need to become more accurate and precise, Zoller said his company can meet that demand.
“With our measuring machines, we can basically make sure that we measure the tools, that we inspect them, and also that we preset those tools dependent on the application for the skill,” he said. “For skiving, for example, in addition to measuring and inspecting, there also is some presetting needs, and those tasks can be done with our equipment.”
Solving challenges
Eight decades of success doesn’t come without a dedication to solving challenges, according to Zoller, and making sure its customers are seen and heard are paramount.
“This is our DNA,” he said. “We listen to customers, especially those in the gear industry. There is always continuous development for us as gear tools evolve, and we always adapt to that challenge. That means we are developing, for example, special applications and special software in order to serve the gear industry. And for us, from a company DNA aspect, we listen to our customers. We listen to the challenges they are having, and we work together as a partnership with our customers to solve those challenges.”
By listening to customers, ZOLLER Inc. can tackle their challenges efficiently and quickly — a skill that has aided in the company’s 80 years of working with the industry.
Each customer is unique, but Zoller said the process of meeting a customer’s expectations begins with a simple conversation.
“When we talk to customers, the main question always is: ‘How can I be more effective?’” he said. “They have tools, and what they are aiming for is: ‘How can I produce more parts with a shorter amount of time with higher quality and less cost?’ This is where we go in as technical consultants, and we optimize the workflow of a company with the support of our products. We are working with customer to make sure they can achieve their goals. And those goals are: more parts in a shorter amount of time for less cost with better quality. This is what we stand for, and this is how we build with our customers.”
That close customer relationship is what makes ZOLLER Inc. among the best in the industry, according to Zoller.
“We solve customer problems, and that’s basically where our success comes from — we never stop until the customer is satisfied,”
he said. “From that perspective, we also put those developments in our different types of products in order to standardize everything. For us, when we look back, the key is that we first develop everything for our customers by our company. We are not dealing with third-party integrators; everything is done through our own development team. We have a very strong development team in design, in electronics, as well as in software, and from that perspective, we can always find the right answer for challenges that come up with our customers.”
Innovative products
That customer dedication means that, as machine tools — and the entire industry as a whole — has evolved, ZOLLER Inc.’s products have evolved with it, according to Zoller.
“In the past, we were developing our products with shadow graphs where the accuracy depended on the operator’s eye, so we took that out of equation,” he said. “We now have a camera system where you always get a repeatable result by the machine, and you don’t depend on the operator anymore, so you have more consistency. Because of that, we can generate consistent measuring reports, and from that, you produce better parts and better components in a shorter amount of time.”
This innovation has helped address the growing worker shortage within the industry, according to Zoller.
“If we look at what we have today, is the industry has a labor shortage, so there are fewer operators who can run the machines, etc.,” he said. “Those are the challenges and problems that we are solving with our solutions.”
Celebrating 80 years
As ZOLLER Inc. celebrates its 80th anniversary this year, Zoller said what helps make this milestone a huge deal is that the company has been, and continues to be, family owned since ZOLLER Inc. first opened its doors in 1945.
“We are family owned, so we not controlled by any party; it’s still in family hands,” he said. “For us, it’s very important that that our employees grow and develop with us for the long term. We have employees who have been with us for decades, and we certainly want to celebrate that.”
ZOLLER Inc. officially marks its 80th year in September, but prior to that, Zoller said the company has many activities planned.
“We will have open houses around the world, as well as in our facility in Germany to thank all our employees for their accomplishments, because our employees do a great job, and we want to thank them as we celebrate 80 years,” he said.
Other special events are planned at tool shows along with the open houses scheduled for North America, Mexico, ZOLLER Inc.’s West Coast region, as well as ones in Mississauga and Canada, according to Zoller.
“We will use those events to celebrate with our employees and our customers, and we will certainly be introducing new products that we have developed recently,” he said.
German roots run deep
In addition to the company’s loyal and talented employees, as well as its innovative products, Zoller said the company’s origins and longevity are particular points of pride for him.
Zoller and his brother are now leading the company into the future, but it all began with their grandfather, Alfred Zoller in 1945 after WWII.
“After the second World War, after Germany was destroyed, he basically was a very hands-on guy, and he repaired different things for a living, and this is how everything started,” he said. “So, 80 years ago, in 1945, the company was started. Later on, my grandfather had the idea of setup reduction of presetting. My father joined the company in ’68, and, since then, we became a manufacturer of two presetter measuring machines. It started with presetting solely with projector-type machines, and then our products evolved over the years and decades with the vision system, vision technology, and an expanded product range.”
Through the decades, Zoller said the company has continued to add to what it can offer the industry.
“We are a 90-percent export business,” he said. “We have a strong presence all over the world with our direct sales offices. We have our own sales employees and service employees in the field working with our customers. And then there’s how we have developed our products, for example, the different type of presetters, and how they evolved from projector-type systems to camera systems that are fully automatic CNC-controlled machines. Our tool management functionalities have developed into IoT products. This is just development. We are a complete solution provider to our customers now. We are not just selling a product anymore, we are selling a manufacturing solution to the customer.”
The next phase
Zoller said his company will continue to meet the challenges of the future with the same zeal it has approached challenges for the last 80 years, and that will definitely include the global labor crisis that many industries are facing.
“There is a labor shortage; the knowledge is missing, and all that needs to be automated,” he said. “This is where ZOLLER will develop a lot of automation —process automation and software automation but also with hardware automation. That means looking at how we can deliver tools to machines, how we can load machine tools, and how we can assemble tools automatically. Over the past few years, we have already developed solutions, and this will be the driving factor over the next 10 years. Process automation needs to happen because the labor and the education are not there. The Baby Boomers are going into retirement, and younger people are not wanting to go directly into the manufacturing field. From that perspective, the knowledge needs to be automated, and this is where we are very well prepared. We have heavily invested and have a huge development team in those areas, and we are really looking forward to working in that field now and into the future.”
